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sinfonieorchester Aachen

Generalmusikdi-rector Marcus Bosch has been at the helm of the Aachen Symphony Orchestra since the 2002/2003 season, and has secured the orchestra a reputation well beyond its own region with internationally praised recordings of Anton Bruckner’s Symphonies.

http://www.sinfonieorchester-aachen.de/
Aachener Kammerchor www.aachener-kammerchor.de
Jonas Alber

Jonas Alber studied violin and conducting in Freiburg and went on to Vienna where he completed his studies in conducting. The holder of a scholarship from the Herbert von Karajan Foundation, he was appointed as first assistant conductor at the Brunswick State Theatre and a year later offered the position of Director General of Music at the same theatre. As a guest conductor he has conducted numerous concerts with renowned orchestras such as the West German Radio Orchestra in Cologne, the Dresden Philharmonic, and the Tonkünstlerorchester in Vienna, amongst others.
https://www.jonasalber.com/
Amaryllis Quartett

Gustav Frielinghaus * Violin
Lena Wirth * Violin
Lena Eckels * Viola
Yves Sandoz * Violoncello

http://www.amaryllis-quartett.com
Frieder Anders Voice

http://www.lieder-abende.de/
CAPELLA ANGELICA
Teodoro Anzellotti

Akkordion

was born in Candela/Apulia. He studied at the academies of music in Karlsruhe and Trossingen and won numerous first prizes at international competitions, scholarships as well as record prizes. Anzellotti has crucially characterized contemporary music for accordeon. Luciano Berio, Vinko Globokar, Heinz Holliger, Mauricio Kagel, Wolfgang Rihm, Salvatore Sciarrino and many other young composers have written over 300 works for him and in close collaboration with him. Since then brisk concert performances as a soloist with renown orchestras and ensembles at all big music festivals. Anzellotti teaches at the University of Arts Bern and at the academy of music in Freiburg.

http://www.anzellotti.de/
L`Art pour L` Art

L'ART POUR L'ART was formed in 1983 by the exceptional musicians Matthias Kaul (percussion), Astrid Schmeling (flute) and Michael Schröder (guitar). The core members of the ensemble can be enlarged, depending on the occasion. As a “think tank” L'ART POUR L'ART widens the range of contemporary arts through projects with significant consequences, thus often pre-empting artistic demands: the ensemble represents the original meaning of the art concept “l´art pour l´art”. This cultural dialog leeds to exciting conceptions.

http://www.lartpourlart.de/
bärmann trio

Sven van der Kuip * clarinet
Ulrich Büsing * basset horn, bass clarinet
John-Noel Attard * piano

The bärmann trio has been hailed internationally as one of the outstanding trios with clarinets performing today. Presenting an unconventional repertoire, the trio has appeared at important festivals such as the Budapest Spring Festival and the Heidelberg Chamber-Music Festival. A large number of new works have been written for and have been premiered by the trio. Their concerts have been broadcast by the Hungarian Radio, Polish Radio, and several German radio stations.

www.baermann-trio.de
Katharina Bäuml www.capella-de-la-torre.de
Bassorum vox

Seung-Yeon Lee • direction • baroque violoncello
Se-Hee Kim • baroque violoncello
Fernando Reyes Ferrón • baroque guitar, theorbo
Mami Kurumada • harpsichord

www.bassorumvox.com
Axel Bauni

Piano

Axel Bauni was born in the city of Ludwigshafen on the Rhine River and studied at the University of Music in Mannheim/Heidelberg and at the University of the Arts in Berlin. His strongest motivation comes from song interpretation courses taught by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Aribert Reimann. Today, he enjoys an international reputation as a pianist and song interpreter with a special interest in 20th century songs. On the piano, Axel Bauni has accompanied singers like Juliane Banse, Claudia Barainsky, Stella Doufexis, Mojca Erdmann, Christine Schäfer, Doris Soffel, Iris Vermillion, Dietrich Henschel, Thomas Quasthoff, and Yaron Windmüller. Together with them, he has participated in debut performances of songs by contemporary composers like Aribert Reimann, Hans Werner Henze, Hans-Jürgen von Bose, Matthias Pintscher, Wolfgang Rihm and others. With his repertoire he has set highlights at the Berliner Festival Weeks, the Stavanger Music Festival, the Traunsteiner Summer Concerts, and the Kissinger Summer. He has staged Song Evenings in Europe, the U.S., and South America. Axel Bauni has designed and managed important projects such as the series of song evenings on the ”Lied des 20. Jahrhunderts“ (Song of the 20th century) at the MusikTriennale in Cologne in 2000 and, together with Yaron Windmüller, the festival Lied: Strahl (Song vs. Ray) at the German Pavillion at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover. Since 2004, he is responsible for the annual Reichenhaller Liederwerkstatt at the Alpenklassik festival, which due to numerous debut performances focuses mainly on the contemporary song. In 2003, being Aribert Reimann's successor, he became professor and head of an interpretation class focusing on the ”contemporary song“ at the University of the Arts in Berlin and founded the Liedforum Berlin. Thus, for the first time, students and professors of different song classes and from different German universities came to exchange ideas and work together. Apart from his active artistic and pedagogic work, Axel Bauni dedicates his time to editorial activities. He co-published the volume Sämtliche Lieder by Viktor Ullmann at Schott, which received the German Musikeditionspreis in 2005.
Bennewitz Quartet

Soon after its establishment at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 1998 Bennewitz Quartet acquired a wide reputation and quickly found its way among the most outstanding chamber music ensembles of Czech musical life. Two renowned personalities played a crucial role in the quartet’s fast and productive artistic development. It was Prof. Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) under whose guidance the members of Bennewitz Quartet refined their skills in Madrid between 2002 and 2004. Not much later the ensemble moved to Basel where they worked together with Prof. Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) at the ‘Musikakademie’. There, between 2004 and 2006, the Bennewitz Quartet was engaged as a residential ensemble. Besides their own study projects they conducted classes of chamber music for young string quartets. The work of Bennewitz Quartet was honoured with various awards 2001 First Prize by the Bohuslav Martinu Foundation in Prague, 2004 ‘Laureate’ Prize by Czech Chamber Music Society, an affiliate of Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, two prizes (‘Jahresstipendium der Theodor-Rogler- Stiftung’ and ‘Bärenreiter Urtext Preis’) at the prestigious ARD competition in Munich. In 2005 the Bennewitz Quartet won the Gold Medal at the International Chamber Music Competition in Osaka, Japan. 2006 the ensemble carried off the First Prize at ‘Concours Européen de Musique de Chambre’ in Paris and won the First Prize at the international competition ‘Verfemte Musik’ in Schwerin (Germany). Bennewitz Quartet regularly participates in various international music festivals (‘Rheingau Festival’, ‘Heidelberger Frühling’ – Germany; Lucerne Festival – Switzerland; Jiří Němeček * Violine
Štěpán Ježek * Violine
Jiří Pinkas * Viola
Štěpán Doležal * Violoncello

Orlando Festival – Netherlands; Prague Spring Festival – Czech Republic).

http://www.bennewitzquartet.com
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin www.rsb-online.de
Rundfunkchor Berlin

The Rundfunkchor Berlin is the oldest radio choir in Germany. Made up of 64 full-time professional singers, it gives approx. 50 concerts each year. Its wide-ranging repertoire extends from the Renaissance period to the present day. The main emphasis is on works involving choral and orchestral forces. The Rundfunkchor Berlin works with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, regularly appearing in all major concert venues. It has built especially intensive partnerships with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester under Kent Nagano and the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Marek Janowski.

http://www.rundfunkchor-berlin.de/
Hörner der Berliner Philharmoniker Stefan de Leval Jezierski
Fergus McWilliam
Klaus Wallendorf
Sarah Willis

www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/
Avis Berry

Voice

Avis Berry was born in Clearwater (Florida) and studied at Florida State University, Tallahassee. Tours have taken her through the USA and to Europe and Asia. She has sung with Dave Brubeck, Bobby McFerrin and Robert Shaw. She has appeared as a soloist with the Tallahassee Community Choir and the Florida State Chamber Choir.
Holger Blüder

Marcus Bosch

In 2002 German-Brasilian conductor Marcus Bosch was appointed General Music Director of the city of Aachen, which has a great tradition of conductors with predecessors like Fritz Busch, Herbert von Karajan and Wolfgang Sawallisch.Born in 1969, Bosch studied in Heidelberg/Mannheim and then decided he would follow the rather more traditional career as Kapell-meister and therefore worked with numerous institutions in the famous “German province” as Osnabrück, Wiesbaden, Halle and Saar-brücken, a period which he used to get familiar with a big operatic and symphonic repertoire already at an early stage.Marcus Bosch appeared as guest conductor at Teatro Filarmonico Verona, Orchestre National de Belgique, Deutsche Kammer-philharmonie Bremen, Rundfunk-Sinfonieor-chester Saarbrücken, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, Göteborgs Operan and Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. After his debut with Fidelio at the Hamburg State Opera, he was immediately reinvited for the productions of Freischütz and Entführung aus dem Serail in 2006/2007.Future engagements include his debuts with Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Düsseldor-fer Symphoniker, Orchestra Nazionale della RAI Torino and Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana Palermo. Whenever an orchestra or opera manager listened to a performance of Bosch in Aachen, he made an immediate invitation.With the Aachen Symphony Orchestra Bosch recorded works by Bruckner, Mahler, Verdi and Wagner. Especially his interpretations of Bruckner symphonies no. 7 and 8 are interna-tionally highly acclaimed.

http://www.marcus-bosch.de/
Staatsorchester Braunschweig The Brunswick State Orchestra is one of the oldest orchestras in the world. It emerged from the court orchestra of Duke Julius of Brunswick/Wolfenbüttel, which had been founded in 1587. Its development into a modern opera- and symphony orchestra can be imagined by studying a list of names associated with ist history: Michael Praetorius, Heinrich Schütz, Franz Liszt or Richard Strauss, who were either permanent conductors or came to conduct their own works in Brunswick. In 1918, the court Orchestra of the Duke became the Brunswick State Theatre Orchestra and after the second world war it finally became the Brunswick State Orchestra. Besides its duties as an opera orchestra, the orchestra has an important part to play in the realm of symphony concerts in the area. The series of ten annual symphony concerts in the city hall with audiences of more than 40.000 each year, is unparallelled in Lower Saxony. Special concerts and a series of chamber concerts with members of the orchestra complete the range of concerts in Brunswick.
With Stefan Soltesz, who in 1988 became the successor to Heribert Esser, Director General of Music for many years, began a new phase of recordings and CD productions.
In 1998, at the age of 29, Jonas Alber became the youngest Director General of Music of the Sate Theatre as well as Principal Conductor of the orchestra.

http://www.staatsorchesterbraunschweig.de/
Capella de la Torre

Katharina Bäuml • Shawn, Dulician
Birgit Bahr • Shawn, Dulician, Recorder
Detlef Reimers • Trombone
Annette Hils • Bass Dulcian, Recorder

Capella de la Torre is a group of musicians who have made a name for themselves as specialists in historical performance practice. The ensemble's aim is to give listeners an immediate experience of the rich and hitherto neglected repertoire of mediaeval and renaissance music by performing it to a professional standard. The name "de la Torre" has a double meaning. In the first place, it pays homage to the Spanish composer Francisco de la Torre, who wrote his "Danza Alta" at the beginning of the 16th century. This is probably the most famous piece for what was then known as "capella alta", an ensemble of wind instruments such as shawms, dulcians, sackbuts and cornetti. Capella de la Torre has specialized in music written for the "capella alta". Secondly, the name may be taken in a literal sense: "de la Torre" means "from the tower" and groups of wind players (Spanish: ministriles) often played on towers or balconies at festivals and other official occasions. "Torres de los Ministriles" are still to be found in many Spanish towns today. Capella de la Torre does not confine itself toSpanish music, however, but also plays music written throughout the rest of Europe for the "hauts instruments" or "loud instruments". In general, it tries to breathe life into the old traditions of "ministriles", "piffari" and "Stadtpfeiffer". In the music world of today there are very few ensembles centred around historical doublereed instruments. This is particularly so in Germany.

www.capella-de-la-torre.de
Max Emanuel Cencic

Countertenor

Until 1997, Max Emanuel Cencic performed as a highly successful soloist at Lied concerts in Japan, the US and Europe. In 2001, he switched his vocal fach and has been performing as a countertenor ever since. In Basel, he sang the role of Nerone in Monteverdi's opera L'Incoronazione di Poppea, directed by Conrad Junghänel, which earned him the award of best new singer of the year 2003 by "Opernwelt" ("Opera World") magazine. In 2004, Max Emanuel Cencic sang the role of Osmino in La Fida Ninfa by Antonio Vivaldi at the Bayreuth Baroque Festival and at the Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival. He furthermore sang the role of Apollo in Il nascimento dell' Aurora by Tomaso Albinoni on several occasions. He appeared as Perseo in Vivaldi's long-forgotten serenata Andromeda Liberata in London (Barbican Center), Rotterdam (De Doelen), Boston (Jordan Hall), Venice (Teatro Ridotoo), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Japan and at other prestigious opera houses worldwide. The performance of Andromeda Liberata in Tokyo was named the second best concert of the year 2005 in Japan. Max Emanuel Cencic furthermore had his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in the role of Perseo. Emanuel Cencic is also a very successful interpreter of Händel. He delighted the audience with his 2005 appearance in the opera Dionisio re di Portogallo - Sosarme directed by Alan Curtis in Lisbon (Teatro Sao Carlos), St. Gallen (Switzerland) and at Gian Carlo Menotti's Festival due Mondi in Spoleto. In Halle, Max Emanuel Cencic sang the alto part in Händel's oratorio Saul as well as the role of Roberto in Griselda performed at the Festival Ambronay. The artist currently works with directors Alan Curtis, Andrea Marcon, Christoph Rousset, Michael Hofstetter, Rene Clemencic and Jean Christoph Spinosi, among others. Max Emanuel Cencic has recorded several solo CDs. His CD "Cantata d'amore" received the top recommendation "Recommandé par classica". "The Vivaldi Album" and "Kantaten", his subsequent CDs, were both received enthusiastically by music lovers and critics alike. In December 2006 he had his debut of the role of the prince Orlovsky at Theatre du Capitole, Tolomeo in Händel’s Giulio Cesare in Genoa, and, in Mai 2007, he had his debut at Theatre du Champs Elysée in Paris with the Al Ayre Espanol Orquestra.

http://www.cencic.net/
Paulus Christmann

Deutsches Horn Ensemble www.deutsches-hornensemble.de
William Dongois

Cornett

http://www.le-concert-brise.com/dir_en.htm
Stella Doufexis

Mezzo-soprano

The German-Greek mezzo-soprano singer Stella Doufexis studied with Prof. Ingrid Figur, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Aribert Reimann in Berlin. She completed her studies with Anna Reynolds. Numerous guest performances have led her, amongst others, to the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, to the German State Opera in Berlin and the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona. At the Salzburg Festival, she convinced in Verdi’s Falstaff as Meg Page under the direction of Claudio Abbado as well as Lorin Maazel. She sang the same part at the Communal Theatre of Ferrara under the direction of Claudio Abbado as well as the Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. The singer could be seen at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in new productions of Les Troyens (Berlioz) with Zubin Mehta and the Cunning Little Vixen (Janácek) with Jun Märkl. She stepped into the breach as Dorabella in the concert performance of Così fan tutte under the direction of Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonics in the spring of 2004, which brought her special recognition both from the audience and the press. She has been a permanent ensemble member of the Komische Oper in Berlin since autumn of the same year, where she could celebrate great success with important parts of her field (Cherubino, Dorabella and recently the Oktavian). Stella Doufexis could be heard as renowned lied singer at the festivals of Luzern and Berlin, the Schubertiade Hohenems, the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival as well as the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, and continued to perform with recitals in Brussels, Vienna, London, Amsterdam, Athens, Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin. With her successful and extraordinary Greece programme “Beautiful world, where are you”, she could be heard in several recitals together with Axel Bauni. In the concert field, Stella Doufexis sang with all important German radio orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonics as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Orchestre de Paris, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Stuttgart Bach Academy. Working with renowned conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov, Lorin Maazel, Kent Nagano, Kurt Masur, Roger Norrington, Christopher Hogwood, Leonard Slatkin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christoph Eschenbach, Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado led her to the BBC Proms, the Berlin Festival, the Bonn Beethoven Festival, to the Festival in Athens, den Salzburg Festival and the Halle Händel Festival, to name a few. Stella Doufexis is living in Berlin with her husband Christian Jost.
Trio Echnaton Wolfram Brandl * Violin
Sebastian Krunnies * Viola
Frank-Michael Guthmann * Violoncello
Gabriel Feltz

Born in 1971 in Berlin Gabriel Feltz has been appointed chief conductor/ Generalmusikdirektor of the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker from the season 2004/2005. In addition, from September 2008 he will take over the position as Principal Guest Conductor at the Basel Theatre/Switzerland for two years. From 2001 until 2005 he was Generalmusikdirektor of the Philharmonic Orchestra and the Theatre of Altenburg-Gera. Gabriel Feltz studied at the 'Hanns Eisler' Academy of Music in Berlin and finished his conducting and piano studies in 1994. Following this he became Gerd Albrecht's assistant at the Staatsoper in Hamburg. First engagements took him to the Städtische Bühnen in Lübeck (1995-1997) and the theatre in Bremen (1997-2000). In 1993 Gabriel Feltz won the First Prize at the 4th Berlin conductors course of the Ferenc Friscay Society. In 1996 he was selected as one of two 'Conducting Fellows' of the Tanglewood Music Center where he performed with Seji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink in joint concerts. In 1997 he was a finalist of the Bonn Conductors Competition and conducted the concluding concert of the Beethoven Festival. In 1999 Gabriel Feltz became a prize winner of the Conductors Forum of the Deutscher Musikrat. Gabriel Feltz has conducted leading orchestras as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks within the framework of the Munich International ARD Competition 2003, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, the Cologne Gürzenich-Orchester, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Cologne and Leipzig, the Frankfurter Opernhaus- and Museumsorchester, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Essener Philharmoniker, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, the Bremer Philharmoniker, the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Bamberger Symphoniker as well as the Orchestra of the Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen. In 2000/2001 Gabriel Feltz conducted a new production of Luigi Nono's 'Intolleranza' at the Bremer Theatre directed by Johann Kresnik. At the Bayerische Staatsoper he made his debut with a ballet world premiere in March 1999 and has been a regular guest conductor there ever since. In October 2004 Gabriel Feltz gave his successful debut with the Staatskapelle Dresden at the Semperoper. In the 2005/2006 season he among others followed an invitation of the Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim. In 2006/2007 Gabriel Feltz conducted the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berner Symphonie-Orchester, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken as well as the KBS Symphony Orchestra Seoul. In the season 2008/09 Gabriel Feltz will conduct the revival of Detlef Glanert's opera "Caligula" at the Frankfurt/Main Opera House. In October 2009 Gabriel Feltz will give his debut with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Numerous radio recordings of both opera and concert literature bear witness to his interest in new music.
Friedhelm Flamme Organ
Reinhold Friedrich

Trumpet

Born in Weingarten, Reinhold Friedrich studied at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe, where he meanwhile holds a professorship. Since winning German public TV’s international ARD competition in Munich in 1986, he gives concerts on the important podiums of the national and international music scene. As a soloist, he works with ensembles like the Berliner Barock-Solisten as well as the chamber orchestras of Basel, Vienna and Zurich. Furthermore, Reinhold Friedrich played among others with the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Radio Symphony Orchestra of the NDR under the baton of such renowned conductors like Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Paolo Carignani, Dennis Russell Davies, Peter Eötvös, Eliahu Inbal, Ingo Metzmacher and Hans Zender. In addition to his appearances as a soloist, Reinhold Friedrich also plays chamber music alongside partners like Robyn Schulkowsky (percussion), Thomas Duis (piano), Martin Lücker (organ), Albrecht Mayer (oboe), Thomas Quasthoff (bass) and Ruth Ziesak (soprano). An important aspect of his projects is the interpretation of the works of comtemporary composers such as Benedict Mason, Johannes Caspar Walther, Rebecca Saunders, Herbert Willi or Wolfgang Rihm. In the season 2006/ 2007, Reinhold Friedrich has already appeared as soloist of the Vienna and of the Czech Philharmonics, playing Herbert Willi’s Concert for trumpet, as well as of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam (Wolfgang Rihm’s Marsyas). Together with the BBC Symphony Orchestra he presented the Concert for trumpet Aerial by Heinz Karl Gruber under the baton of the composer himself at the Lucerne Festival. Furthermore, he played a series of concerts with the Zurcher Kammerorchester, performing works by Bach and Leopold Mozart.

http://www.reinhold-friedrich.de/
Christoph Genz tenor
Matthias Gerchen

Bass

Matthias Gerchen was born in Bremen and began his vocal training with Professor Carl-Heinz Müller in Hanover while working as a doctor. He went on to study with Christoph Stephinger and has been working under the guidance of Margreet Honig in Amsterdam for many years, besides attending masterclasses by Ingrid Bjoner, Jessica Cash, Elio Battaglia and Josef Metternich, among others. Matthias Gerchen has a wide-ranging repertoire, from the Renaissance to contemporary music, and is in great demand as a soloist. He has performed in operas by Cavalli, Mozart and Rossini and recently sang the title role in Reinhard Keiser's "Ulysse" in the Stadttheater Braunschweig. He also gives many "Lieder" recitals, particularly of songs from the late Romantic period. Matthias Gerchen has been invited to many international festivals. He teaches in Hanover and Bremen; from 1997-2001 he was Visiting Professor at the Escola des Artes in Porto, Portugal.
Stella Goldberg Piano

http://www.lieder-abende.de/
Mattias Gräff-Schestag

piano

www.graeff-schestag.de
kammerphilharmonie graubünden www.kammerphilharmonie.ch
Händelfestspielorchester Halle www.haendelfestspielorchester.de
Simon Halsey Simon Halsey was born in London in 1958. He attended a number of venerable English choral training institutions (New College, Oxford; King’s College, Cambridge) and, following a brief period of conducting studies at the Royal College of Music, he became music director of the University of Warwick at the age of 22. His activities caught the attention of Simon Rattle who invited him to assume the direction of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus. In Birmingham Halsey founded three more choirs as well as the City of Birmingham Touring Opera and played a prominent role in youth-oriented and educational activities. In June 2000 the University of Central England in Birmingham conferred on him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his services to the city’s musical life. In addition, Halsey has coached and directed choral groups across the world. From 1989 to 1994 he was artistic director of the Salisbury Festival, and he subsequently directed the chorus of the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp. He has formed especially close partnerships with Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Marek Janowski, Edo de Waart, Riccardo Chailly and Sakari Oramo. Apart from the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Simon Halsey directs the Radio Choir in Hilversum and European Voices. As principal conductor he is responsible for the choral programmes of the Northern Sinfonia. Since 2001 Simon Halsey has presided over the affairs of the Rundfunkchor Berlin.
Wofgnag Heinzel www.philharmonie-merck.de/service/orchester/heinzel_chef.htm
Nicolas Hodges

Piano

www.nicolashodges.com
Martin Hofmann Organ
Ensemble Integrales www.ensemble-integrales.com
Jenaer Philharmonie
Klaus Kämper Violoncello
Bläsersolisten Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

http://www.kammerphilharmonie.com/Blaesersolisten.html
Wolfgang Katschner Wolfgang Katschner Wolfgang Katschner studied the guitar at the "Hanns Eisler" School for Music in Berlin, as well as the lute at the School for Music and the Performing Arts in Frankfurt/Main. After working at Schwerin Theatre, he has been freelancing since 1984. From 1985-1992 he worked on the artistic and organisational direction of the “Schütz-Akademie”, an ensemble for German and Italian music of the 17th century. It was during this time that his strong affinity for pieces from the period of the 17th century was sparked. He has taught the guitar and lute at the Schools for Music in Berlin and Dresden. Today, he realises the majority of his diverse activities with the LAUTTEN COMPAGNEY Ensemble in Berlin and BELLUM MUSICUM in Weißenfels. Since 1996 he has been busy re-performing Baroque operas. Under his direction, both Ensembles have performed concerts and operas at renowned festivals, such as the Berlin Bach Days, Bayreuth Baroque, the Dresden Music Festival, the Handel Festival in Halle, the Summer Music Festival in Potsdam’s Sanssouci, the Hannover-Herrenhausen Festival Weeks, the Kissingen Summer, the Schwetzingen Mozart Festival and the Holland Festival for Ancient Music in Utrecht. Wolfgang Katschner also took on the musical direction for counter-tenor Axel Köhler’s directorial debut in a “Poppea“ production by Monteverdi at the opera house in Halle. He staged unknown Dresden Court operas over a four year cycle at the Dresden Music Festival. In 2000, the Dresden Music Festival honoured him with their festival prize for his efforts on works by Bontempi, Peranda, Hasse and Pallavicino. Music by G.F. Handel occupies a further central position in his artistic work. For the Handel Festival in Halle and the Musical Festival in Potsdam, he contributed a stage production of the dramatic cantatas “Clori, Tirsi e Fileno“ and “Apollo e Dafne“. In 2002, he directed the Messiah in a German version by J.G. Herder in a Goethe Theatre Bad Lauchstaedt with the Dresden Chamber Choir. In winter 2002, he directed a new production of the opera buffa “La Divolessa” by Baldassare Galuppi at the Hans-Otto Theatre in Potsdam as well as in 2003 the production of Handel’s opera “Teseo“ as a co-production of the Handel Festival in Halle, the Goethe Theatre in Bad Lauchstaedt, the Hannover-Herrenhausen Festival Weeks and the Bayreuth Baroque Festival. In May 2004, Wolfgang Katschner took over the musical direction of Handel's Alcina" at the Capetown Opera in South Africa. In June 2004, he was the recipient of the Handel Prize in the town of Halle in recognition of his efforts surrounding the works of G.F. Handel.
Nina Kogan Piano

Daniela Kohnen Viola
Thomas Kügler Recorder
Lautten Compagney

Founded by Wolfgang Katschner and Hans-Werner Apel in 1984, the LAUTTEN COMPAGNEY continues to perform in its original form as a lute duo, but also in different instrumental sets including Baroque opera orchestras. The Ensemble has succeeded in performing a number of musical discoveries in the past years. For the first time, music by G.B.Bononcini, B.Castaldi and M.Locke was recorded on CD. The Ensemble has performed concerts and operas at renowned festivals e.g. in Berlin (Bach Days), Bayreuth (Bayreuth Baroque), Dresden (Music Festival), Halle (Handel Festival), Hannover-Herrenhausen (Festival Weeks), Schwetzingen (Mozart Festival and Schwetzingen Festival), Kloster Eberbach (Rheingau Festival), Innsbruck (Festival Weeks for Ancient Music), Stellenbosch (South Africa), and Utrecht (Holland Festival for Ancient Music). The LAUTTEN COMPAGNEY can be heard as an opera orchestra in cooperation with the Hans Otto Theatre in Potsdam’s Sanssouci area, in the historical Goethe Theatre in Bad Lauchstädt, but also as Continuo Ensemble in different performances like “Poppea“ a.o. at the Halle Opera House. The LAUTTEN COMPAGNEY has established its own concert series in Berlin. Close cooperation also connects the Ensmble with known singers such as Mechthild Bach, Suzie le Blanc, Lynne Dawson and Ann Hallenberg.

http://www.lauttencompagney.com/
Trio Lézard

Stéphane Egeling * Oboe
Jan Creutz * Clarinet
Stefan Hoffmann * Bassoon


http://www.trio-lezard.de/
Barbara Lüneburg

Violin and Viola

Barbara Lüneburg performing on the violin and the viola has made herself a name as both an interpreter of classical and contemporary music. She won various violin competitions, including the "Prize for the Best Interpretation of Contemporary Music", awarded at the 4th International Music Competition for Young Culture in Düsseldorf, which displays her special interest in the new music field. Barbara Lüneburg has premiered numerous solo- and chamber music works throughout her career. In addition to being a member of various chamber music and contemporary music ensembles, she regularly performs as a soloist of classical and new music in Germany and abroad. Barbara Lüneburg records for radio broadcast, CD- and TV- productions and plays at various international music festivals such as Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, Bodensee Festival, Bregenzer Festspiele (Austria), Gaudeamus Festival, the Munich Biannual and the Tongyeong International Music Festival (Korea). As a recipient of grants and scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Scholarship of the German People she studied a/o. at the Tshaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Zorija Schichmurzaeva and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) with David Takeno. Barbara Lüneburg is a founding member of ensemble Intégrales.

www.barbara-lueneburg.com
James Maddox Piano

James Maddox was born in 1967 in Tamworth (Australia). During his pianistic studies with Nikolai Evrov at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music he led a busy concert life as chamber musician and accompanist. An invitation from the renowned Slovenian violinist Igor Ozim to work with his students in Cologne led to his specialisation in the violin literature, followed by concerts throughout Europe. Masterclasses with Alexander Lonquich and lessons with Edoardo Strabbioli in Verona 1993-95 broadened his solo repertoire. Since 1996 James Maddox has been accompanist at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf for the violin class of Professor Ida Bieler, with whom he also often performs. He has played in many concerts, TV and radio broadcasts and made CD recordings with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Cologne, as well as participating in their chamber music series. Since 1999 Maddox has directed a concert series in his chosen city of Bonn which has attracted much critical praise, not only for the unusual programming and choice of guests, but also for his solo recitals.

http://www.jamesmaddox.de/
Brass Quintett Mannheim

Mannheim Brass Quintett Klaus Bräker * Trumpet
Wolfram Lauel * Trumpet
Reimer Kühn * Horn
Matthias Gromer * Trombone
Stefan Heimann * Tuba

http://www.mannheimbrass.de
Mariselle Martinez

Mezzo-soprano

The Chilean mezzo-soprano Mariselle Martinez began her career in 1997 as Flosshilde in Wagner's Götterdämmerung. During the same year she received the prestigious Art Critics' Circle award in Chile and won first prize as a Schubert interpreter at the Francisco Viñas Competition in Barcelona. She appears in numerous mezzo-soprano roles in Santiago de Chile, among them Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Carmen, and Sesto (La clemenza di Tito). In Graz und Klagenfurt she sang Olga (Eugene Onegin) and Cherubino, and in Rotterdam she was heard as Maddalena (Rigoletto). Recently Mariselle Martinez thrilled audiences at the German Opera on the Rhine in the title role of Bizet's Carmen, as Minerva in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and as Adrasto in Telemaco. The artist's future engagements include appearances in Basel and Copenhagen.
Tatjana Masurenko

Viola

Tatjana Masurenko, born in Russia, received her early training at the Special Music School and the State Conservatory in St.Petersburg. In 1991 she moved to Germany to continue her studies with Kim Kashkashian and Nobuko Imai at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold. Her many encounters with Boris Pergamenschikow, Paul Badura-Skoda and György Kurtag had a lasting influence on her artistic development. She has won prizes at international competitions, for example, the “Lionel Tertis” International Viola Competition, the Markneukirchen International Viola Competition and the “Yuri Bashmet” International Viola Competition. She has been a guest soloist with many orchestras in Europe, USA and Asia like the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the St. Petersburg Philharmonics and the Hongkong Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with Boris Pergamenschikow, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, Isabelle van Keulen, Jan Vogler and the Vogler-Quartett. During that she also worked with conductors like Marek Janowski, Eiji Oue and Herbert Blomstedt. The artist has been guest of many festivals such as Marlboro Music Festival (USA), Hindemith Festival London and Delft Chamber Music Festival (Netherlands). Besides all these concert tours Tatjana Masurenko is Professor for Viola at the Hochschule für Musik in Leipzig and conducts several master classes in Germany, USA, Turkey and Russia.

http://www.tatjana-masurenko.de/
Philip Mayers Piano

Philip Mayers originates from Australia and studied Piano in Brisbane/Queensland with Max Olding. He participated in master classes with Dalton Baldwin and Geoffrey Parsons and was awarded various prizes such as the “Young Performer of the Year”. He currently lives and works in Berlin as a solo pianist, vocal accompanist and conductor.
Matthias Metzger www.mathias-metzger.de
Dorothee Mields soprano
Johannes Moser

Violoncello

Johannes Moser, born in Munich in 1979, came to international attention in June 2002 when he won the 12th Tchaikovsky Competition and was awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Rococo Variations. Later that year he recorded Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto No 1 with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra for Bavarian Radio and then performed the same concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi at various international festivals including Merano, Stresa, Montreux and Lugano. These events quickly brought Johannes many exciting opportunities at the highest level. Johannes began 2004/2005 with an unexpected concert at the Montreux Festival, where he stepped in on very short notice for Lynn Harrell with Dvorak's Cello Concerto. This was followed by a tour of Asia to Singapore, Taipei and Vietnam. He has also performed with the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Maggio Musicale in Florence under Petrenko at the invitation of Zubin Mehta, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev at both the Barbican in London and in Spain. Future engagements include performances with the Frankfurter Museumsorchester as well as with the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel in Tokyo and concerts with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Christian Thielemann in Munich. His United States debut took place in March 2005 with the Chicago Symphony under Boulez, performing the Rands Concerto. He was greeted with standing ovations, and was described in the Chicago Tribune as „greatly gifted“ and „heroic”. His next engagement in North America with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2005 was a similar success. Elsewhere, Johannes has played with the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Saarbrücken, the SWR Stuttgart, and the Deutsche Symphony Orchestra in Berlin. He has also performed at Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Gstaad Festival and the Rheingau Musik Festival. Johannes Moser became a student of Professor David Geringas in 1997. He also won first prize in the 2000 Davidoff Competition in Riga and the 2001 Mendelssohn competition in Berlin. In 2003 he was awarded the „Bayerische Kunstförderpreis“ and he also holds scholarships from the Ritter Foundation and the prestigious “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”.

www.johannes-moser.com
Nationaltheaterorchester Mannheim www.nationaltheater-mannheim.de/oper/ensemble/oper/orchester/
Radiophilharmonie des NDR The NDR RADIOPHILHARMONIE was founded in 1950 and is one of the most esteemed radio orchestras in Germany. The orchestra plays in its own concert hall in Hannover as well as in great concert halls all over Germany. Starting with the season 1998/99 the NDR RA-DIOPHILHARMONIE has entered a new and very successful era with its chief conductor Eiji Oue. With its manifold programs this orchestra has toured France, Poland, Sweden, Portugal, Japan, Spain and Brazil and has been present at several famous festivals, e.g. Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Braunschweig Classix. Te orchestra is having concert-tours in Europe and oversea. In autumn 2002 it went to Spain, in spring 2003 to Vienna, Zagreb and Budapest, in october 2003 to Brasil and in summer 2004 to Japan.

http://www1.ndr.de/orchester_chor/
Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik

www.hofmusik.de
Alexandra Neumann Piano

Trio Paian
Alexandra Neumann Commenced her studies at the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia, before continuing under Olaf Maisenberg in Stuttgart and, as a DAAD Scholar, under Lev Vlassenko and Mikhail Pletnev at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow. She also gained valuable influence from Alfred Brendel and Vladimir Ashkenazy. She has been a prizewinner at international competitions and has appeared with orchestras such as the Berliner Symphoniker, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker and the Athens State Orchestra. Alexandra Neumann has appeared with Sir Neville Marriner, Mischa Maisky and Sascha Roshdestvensky and has been as guest at international festivals. Alongside her busy concert schedule and numerous radio and TV appearances, she has recorded solo works by Schumann, Mussorgsky and the French Impressionists. She has also taught at the music academies of Stuttgart and Weimar.
Nomos Quartett

Martin Dehning * Violin
Jutta Rübenacker * Violin
Friederike Koch * Viola
Sabine Pfeiffer * Violoncello

http://www.nomos-quartett.de
Norddeutscher Figuralchor www.norddeutscher-figuralchor.de
Opera Swing Quartet www.os4.de
Netta Or

Soprano

Netta Or began her voice studies in 1997 at the Musikhochschule Cologne. She also attended master classes with Kai Wessel and Kurt Moll. While still a student, Netta Or joined the Opera Studio of Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf. She sang Iole in Handel’s Hercules in Potsdam under Andreas Spering, and Jephta under Nicholas McGegan at the Händelfestspiele Göttingen. Also in demand on the concert stage, Bach’s Passions, Handel’s Messiah, the Brahms Requiem as well as Mozart’s Masses led her to distinguished venues such as Kölner Philharmonie, Beethoven-Halle Bonn, Théâtre du Champs Elysées Paris and the Brühler Schlossfestspiele. Further engagements brought her to Klagenfurt (Elvira in Italiana in Algieri) and Montepulciano (Despina in Così fan tutte). In a coproduction of Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Schwetzinger Festspielen in April 2005 she sang Silvina in Scarlatti’s Telemaco under Thomas Hengelbrock. In November 2005 Netta Or sang Rosmene in Handel’s Imeneo at the Irish National Opera in Dublin. In January 2006 she had a great success as Nuri in a new production of d’Albert’s Tiefland at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf. In 2003 she became a member of the ensemble there.

http://www.nettaor.de
Martin Ostertag

Violoncello

Martin Ostertag originates from Lörrach (Baden- Württemberg). He studied under Leo Koscielny in Karlsruhe as well as André Navarra in Paris and Detmold. After completing his Abitur he became solo cellist with the Iraqi Symphony Orchestra. In 1967 he won the International Music Competition of Vienna and the ‘Bundesauswahl Konzerte Junger Künstler des Deutschen Musikrates’, a national competition for young artists organised by the German Music Council. In the same year he became leading solo cellist with the Düsseldorfer Sinfoniker, thereafter a member of the Amati Ensemble in Berlin and in 1972 leading solo cellist with the ‘Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin’. In 1974 he succeeded his former teacher Leo Koscielny as the leading solo cellist of the ‘SWF-Sinfonie-Orchester in Baden-Baden’. In 1980 he took over a professorship for violoncello at the Music University Karlsruhe. As a soloist, a chamber musician and professor, Martin Ostertag is counted among the most renowned cellists. Numerous concert tours have led him throughout Europe and overseas. His dedication to young emerging talent is demonstrated by giving master classes in Germany, Italy, Finland, Canada, Japan and Argentina as well as his membership of the Arts’ Council and his lecturing at the Rhineland-Palatinate foundation Villa Musica. His activities as a soloist and chamber musician are well documented by a substantial discography with renowned labels.
Trio Paian

Carl-Magnus Helling * Vionlin
Marin Smesnoi * Violoncello
Alexandra Neumann * Piano
Stefan Parkmann

Stefan Parkman was born in 1952 in Uppsala (Sweden). He was director of the Royal Philharmonic Choir in Stockholm for eleven years. In 1988, following several years as a guest conductor with the Radio Chamber Choir and the Radio Choir, he was named principal choral conductor of Danish Radio. Parkman has worked with practically all Swedish symphony orchestras and directed several productions at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm. As a singer, he frequently performs the tenor parts in oratorios and passions throughout Scandinavia. Since 2002 he has been principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir. Stefan Parkman’s association with the Rundfunkchor Berlin began in 1993.
Philharmonie Merck www.philharmonie-merck.de
Ensemble Phorminx

The PHORMINX Ensemble was formed in 1993 by musicians and composers living in Darmstadt. Long-term and direct contact between composers and performers was the main thought behind the project right from the start, with contemporary works nearly always studied and performed in close cooperation with the composers. In the few years of its existence, almost 100 compositions have been written for Phorminx, and they perform their broad programmes regularly at important festivals, such as the International Holiday Courses for Modern Music, Darmstadt, or the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival as well as at concerts in Germany and abroad. The ensemble is also responsible for three concerts series in Darmstadt, Frankfurt and Tübingen. In 1996, the ensemble was awarded the „Bad Homburger Förderpreis“. Radio productions, live concert recordings and CDs are documentation of their work. The CD „Vom Eise befreit“ – with compositions by Olga Neuwirth, Younghi Pagh Paan and Nicolaus A. Huber – was awarded the German Record Critics prize. Members of the Ensemble Carola Schlüter, Soprano; Angelika Bender, Flutes; Thomas Löffler, Clarinets; Peter Zelienka, Violin; Wolfgang Lessing, Violoncello; Helmut Oesterreich, Guitar; Bernd Mallasch, Percussion

http://www.ensemble-phorminx.de
The Playfords

Björn Werner, baritone
Annegret Fischer, recorders
Erik Warkenthin, baroque guitar, archiliuto, chitarrone
Benjamin Dreßler, viola da gamba
Nora Thiele, percussion

The ensemble The Playfords
were founded in Weimar, Germany, where recorder player Annegret Fischer first encountered John Playford's Dancing Master during an Early Music project at the Hochschule für Musik “Franz Liszt”. Fascinated by the music, she felt a strong inclination to rearrange and reinterpret it with an ensemble of her own. The Playfords have dedicated themselves to dance music from the Renaissance and Baroque Period; their main emphasis is on English music. They are musically inspired among others by their collaborations with the historical dance group Erfurt Guild of Dancers and their leader Joachim Laubengeiger. The latter encouraged The Playfords to add a singer to the dance arrangement, which has become a speciality of the ensemble. Their first CD “Oranges & Lemons” has several aims: to provide music for live dance; to be an enjoyable listening experience; and most of all, to show that after more than 350 years the music remains dance music that inspires dance.
The Playfords perform at music festivals such as the Dance and Folk Festival of Rudolstadt (TFF) in 2005, the “Elbhangfest” of Dresden and the ‘Klang im Kloster’ Festival in Frankfurt am Main in 2006. Together with their concert activities, they play at their own “Early Music Jam Session”.

www.the-playfords.de for more information.
Andreas Post

Tenor

The tenor Andreas Post, born in Arnsberg, received his first singing lessons by Alastair Thompson. They were followed by studies in the voice class of Prof. Ks Soto Papulkas at the Folkwang- Hochschule in Essen. Post studied first of all teaching profession music, but changed then to voice/ music theatre. He passed the artistic final examination (1997) as well as the following concert exam of the post graduate course (1999) with distinction. In 1996/ 97, he was scholarship holder of the Schubertgesellschaft in Duisburg. Within the scope of this scholarship, he worked with Prof. Normen Shetler on questions of song interpretation. In 1998, he won a second price in the 11th International Bach Competition in Leipzig as well as a special price of the MDR. His concert activity led the scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Verband Köln abroad to Italy, France, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands as well as to Poland, Israel and Macedonia. The demanded tenor feels at home not only at concerts and many festivals, such as the Telemannfesttage in Magdeburg, the Music Festival in Dresden, the Days of Old Music in Regensburg, the Händel Festival in Halle or the Festival van Flanderen in Brügge. He also participated in many scenic projects, e.g. as Tamino in Mozart’s magic flute, as Alfred in Johann Strauß Fledermaus, as Macheath in Brittens The Beggar´s Opera, as Samson in a stage version of the of the homonymous Oratorio of G. F. Händel or finally as Astromonte in the rediscovered opera the philosopher’s stone to which among others also Mozart contributed some parts. Post’s particular interest is in the art song to which he has dedicated himself intensively since 1995 at recitals in collaboration with the pianist Tatjana Dravenau. The considerable field of activity and the diversified repertoire of Andreas Post reflect the variety, which is also documented also by numerous CD- and radio productions: Two solo-CDs of Andreas Post appeared in 2002 and 2003.

http://www.post-andreas.de/
ensemble recherche

The ensemble recherche is one of the most distinguished ensembles for contemporary music. Since it was founded in 1985, it has given more than four hundred first performances and thus decisively promoted the development of contemporary chamber and ensemble music. This nine-member soloist ensemble has gained a firm position on the international music scene through its own dramaturgical policy. In addition to its extensive concert programme, the ensemble recherche takes part in music theatre projects, radio broadcasts and film productions, gives courses for instrumentalists and composers and offers up-and-coming musicians insight into its rehearsal work. Its repertoire starts with the late 19th century classics and extends from French Impressionism to the Second Viennese School and the Expressionists to the Darmstadt School, French Spectralism and the avant-garde experiments in contemporary music. A further field of interest of the ensemble recherche is a contemporary view of music prior to 1700. Almost 40 CDs testify to the enormous scope of this repertoire. Together with the “Freiburger Barockorchester”, the ensemble recherche organises the annual “Ensemble Akademie Freiburg”, a forum for training professional musicians in ensemble playing in early and contemporary music and for encounters between both areas of music. The musicians in the ensemble recherche give courses at music academies and teach at the prestigious International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt. The ensemble recherche is self-managed and organises its own concert series in its home town of Freiburg.

www.ensemble-recherche.de
Matthias Rexroth

altus

Matthias Rexroth is the only countertenor who won two important international vocal competitions: the 37th Francesco-Viñas in Barcelona (first Prize and the special Prize as best countertenor) and the 19th Hans- Gabor-Belvedere-Competition in Vienna (first Prize as well as eight additional special Prizes). Born in Nürnberg he studied at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, with Marilyn Horne in New York and since 1999 with Eytan Pessen at the Stuttgart Opera, where he gave his operatic debut in the same year in Purcell’s King Arthur. Highlights included his Vienna Philharmonic debut with Orff’s Carmina Burana at Vienna's Musikverein under Riccardo Muti, concerts under Fabio Luisi and Nicola Luisotti with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome, the worldwide televised b-minor-Mass with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the title part in Rossini’s Tancredi, a ‘Rising Star’ recital tour with performances in major concert houses, concert appearances with Concerto Köln, Freiburger Barockorchester, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, at the Festivals of Schwetzingen, Innsbruck, Ludwigsburg, Rheingau, Baden-Baden and Shanghai as well as the Styriarte Graz. Recordings have been made with all the major broadcasting companies in Germany.

http://matthiasrexroth.com/
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz



http://www.staatsphilharmonie.de/
Peter Riegelbauer contrabass
Mirko Roschkowski

Tenor

Mirko Roschkowski, a native of Dortmund, studied special education in Cologne, while concurrently taking private voice lessons with Lothar Trawny in Gelsenkirchen and Kammersaenger Edda Moser in Cologne. Master classes with Deon van der Walt, Christoph Prégardien, Raúl Giménez, Margreet Honig, and Edda Moser completed his training. Following engagements in Detmold and Bremerhaven, since the 2006/07 season Roschkowski has been an ensemble member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. His repertoire includes the roles of Tamino (Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Idomeneo, Faust (Gounod), and Almaviva (Rossini). Roschkowski is also an established concert artist and has appeared as a soloist in numerous passions, oratorios, and masses. As a Lied interpreter, he collaborates in particular with pianists Gertraud Ottinger and Thorsten Fabrizi.

http://www.mirkoroschkowski.com
Salzburg Chamber Soloists

In 1991, the violinist Lavard Skou-Larsen and a handful of colleagues decided to form an unusual ensemble. The aim of this ensemble was to perform orchestral chamber music with the freedom of soloists. Thanks to the success of the first tour of the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, invitations followed to numerous concerts with such celebrities as Boris Belkin, Mischa Maisky or Alexander Lonquich. 1995 the orchestra completed its second tour of South America, returning with the critics prize for the best foreign orchestra to have performed at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, that season. Since then, the orchestra has performed in the Concertgebouw/Amsterdam, the Philharmonie/Berlin, the Theatre des Champs Elysee/Paris, and other important concerthalls. They are regular guests at various festivals, including Academia Chigiana / Siena, the Turku Musikfestival / Finland and the Salzburger Kulturtage. Back to North America in 2004 Salzburg Chamber Soloists played in San Francisco, Orange County (Los Angeles), Chicago and other towns with immense success. In 2006, the 250 years celebrities of W.A. Mozarts birth, the orchestra will perform 18 concerts in Salzburg, and perform as musical ambassador of Salzburg at the places Mozart visited in his lifetime.

http://www.salcsol.com/
Dörthe Maria Sandmann

Soprano

Dörthe Maria Sandmann was born in Berlin, where she graduated with distinction in Vocal Studies at the Musikhochschule “Hanns Eisler” in 1998. International engagements have led her to perform across the globe, including collaborations with the Thomanerchor in Leipzig, the Ensemble Oriol and the Berlin Philharmonics.

http://www.doerthe-maria-sandmann.de/
Scaramouche Quartett Werner Neugebauer * violin
Cornelia Löscher * violin
Firmian Lermer * viola
Detlef Mielke * cello
Götz Schumacher www.grau-schumacher.de
Lavard Skou-Larsen

Violin

Lavard Skou-Larsen was born in Porto Alegre/Brazil. He first received violin lessons at the age of four from his father, Gunnar, and had extra tuition from Professor Ernst Moravec in Vienna. He was admitted to the Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Mozarteum in Salzburg aged fourteen to study with Prof. Dr. Helmut Zehetmair, and gained a performance diploma with distinction. He later completed a postgraduate diploma under Sandor Végh. Lavard Skou-Larsen has won prizes both as soloist and as chamber musician, including the "Concertino Prague" and the "Sergio Lorenzi" in Triest. He was member of the Camerata Academica under Sandor Végh from 1983-86. He has been teaching violin at the Mozarteum/Salzburg since 1991, the same year he founded the Salzburg Chamber Soloists. Lavard Skou-Larsen has been invited to perform with leading symphony and chamber orchestras in Europe and South America, as leader, concertmaster and conductor, including the European Union Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Deutsche Kammerakademe Neuss, Orchestra Internazionale d´Italia, Orchestre de Chambre de Geneve, Orchestra Sinfonica de Porto Alegre, and many others. In 1997, he and the pianist Alexander Müllenbach released the first ever recordings of the Brazilian composer, Camargo M. Guarnieris complete violin sonatas for Marco Polo. Since 2004 he is acclaimed chiefconductor of the "Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein".
Andreas Stoehr

Andreas Stoehr studied at the Vienna Conservatory from 1981–1985, specializing in piano (under Alfred Kremela), coaching and song accompaniment (under David Lutz), conducting (under Reinhard Schwarz and Gennady Rozhdestvensky), and musicology. He made his conducting debut at the Vienna Chamber Opera during the 1985/86 season with Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia and subsequently conducted the company's Mozart cycle. This was followed by engagements in Graz, at the Prague State Opera, and the National Theater in Weimar. Beginning in 1990, he also made a name for himself in the concert hall and began an international career conducting ensembles such as the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National d'Île de France, the Residence Orchestra in The Hague, the Philharmonic State Orchestra in Halle, and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Acclaimed productions of Schoenberg's Erwartung and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle with the Dutch National Touring Opera and, since 1992, return engagements at the Styrian Festival (where he conducted Schubert's last opera, Der Graf von Gleichen, in 1997) and KlangBogen Wien, a Schumann cycle with the Liège Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000, and the Gruss Circus project followed. Stoehr was appointed Music Director of the Opéra Comique in 1996. There he distinguished himself conducting French repertoire (Bizet, Ravel, Poulenc) until 1999. Since 1999 he has again concentrated his activities more heavily on the Germanspeaking countries. He has been Principal Conductor of the German Opera on the Rhine and the St. Gallen Theater since the 2001/02 season. Productions such as André Previn's A Streetcar named Desire, the Swiss premiere of Max von Schilling's Mona Lisa, and Puccini's Turandot in St. Gallen and Ariadne auf Naxos, Capriccio, Der fliegende Holländer, and, in particular, Monteverdi's Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L'Incoronazione di Poppea in Düsseldorf were resounding successes with critics and audiences alike. He recently conducted Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Telemaco, La finta giardiniera, and La clemenza di Tito at the Rhine Opera and the coproduction Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. Andreas Stoehr | c o n d u c t o r Poland with the Polish Chamber choir, performing Bach's B Minor Mass. Other projects included the celebrations of Arcangelo Corelli's 350th birthday in October 2003 and guest performances in Rome, 2003. In 2004, alongside numerous concerts in Düsseldorf, the ensemble also performed in the Cologne Philharmonie, Castle Nordkirchen, Coesfeld and Lüneburg. In 2005, Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik was invited to perform at the Göttingen Festival and in August 2005 they travelled to Montreux to perform Montiverdi's Ulisse. In 2005, the ensemble celebrated its 10th birthday with a concert series in Düsseldorf's Robert-Schumann Hall. In 2006 the ensemble recorded a passion oratorio by Gottfried August Homilius with the Basler Madrigalisten on CD for Carus, which received unanimous praise from critics, as did the CD “Cabinetmusik für Carl Theodor” on Coviello Classics. The Hofmusik performs regularly in concerts with noted soloists, such as Christine Schornsheim, Maite Beaumont, Anna Korondi, and Alfredo Bernardini. In 2007 the Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik appeared for the first time at the Essen Philharmonie in Bach's St. John Passion, conducted by Peter Neumann, with ChorWerk Ruhr. In addition to its successful concert series in Düsseldorf, close collaboration with WDR (West German Broadcasting Corporation) and concerts at the Göttingen Handel Festival, the Arolsen Baroque Festival, and the Cologne Philharmonie are planned. www.hofmusik.de 1. Violin: Mary Utiger (Concertmaster), Gabriele Steinfeld, Marika Apro-Klos, Veronika Egger, Gudrun Engelhardt 2. Violin: Julia Huber-Warzecha, Bettina von Dombois, Ilsebil Hünteler, Horst Peter Steffen Viola: Bettina Ihrig, Antje Sabinski, Karen Walthinsen Violoncello: Julie Maas Double Bass: Michael Neuhaus Oboe: Susanne Regel, Thomas Jahn Bassoon: Ilka Wagner Horn: Joaquim Palet, Oliver Kersken Basso Continuo and Recitatives: Nicolas Selo (Violoncello) Christoph Lehmann (Hapsichord)
Stuttgarter Philharmoniker

The orchestra Stuttgarter Philharmoniker was founded in September 1924. Its rapid artistic development soon made it possible to engage great conductors and soloists such as Leo Blech, Hans Knappertsbusch, Hermann Abendroth, Fritz Kreisler, Carl Schuricht and Felix Weingartner, before the orchestra split up in 1933. After the war, many former came together again under the name Stuttgarter Philharmoniker. Hermann Hildebrandt, Willem van Hoogstraten, Hans Hörner, Antonio de Almeida and Alexander Paulmüller were the chief conductors from 1949 to 1972. Under Hans Zanotelli, artistic director from 1972 to 1985, the Philharmoniker developed into an effective and renowned musical group. In 1976 Stuttgart – the capital of Baden-Württemberg – took over the sponsorship of the orchestra. With Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, chief conductor from 1985 to 1991, the Philharmoniker won great recognition in Germany and abroad. From 1991 to 1995 Carlos Kalmar continued the tradition of his predecessors. From 1995 to 2002, Jörg-Peter Weigle held the post of the orchestra's chief conductor. Walter Weller, with whom the orchestra was closely associated for many years, was named its honorary conductor in October 2003. Gabriel Feltz has been the chief conductor of the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker since September 2004, and Generalmusikdirektor of the City of Stuttgart. In addition to its varied work in several concert series in its home city, the orchestra regularly gives concerts in many cities in south-west Germany. Every year it also gives guest performances in Germany and abroad. In recent years, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker toured the USA, Japan, South America and the People's Republic of China. The orchestra's artistic work is well documented with LPs, radio recordings and CDs. In February 2007 the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker recieved for the first time ever the “Prix Rachmaninoff 2006” donated by the composer’s grandson Alexandre Rachmaninoff (Sergej Rachmaninoff Foundation) to honour the orchestra for their outstanding engagement in performing Rachmaninoff’s oeuvre.

http://www.stuttgart.de/philharmoniker/
Mike Svoboda www.mikesvoboda.de
André J. Thomas

Ensemble Triolog www.triolog-muenchen.de
Trio Viaggio Annette John * Recorder
Katrin Krauß * Recorder
Tanja Peemöller * Recorder

http://www.trio-viaggio.de/
Dominique Visse

Countertenor
www.dominique-visse.com
Vocapella http://www.vocapella.de/
Ensemble Vokalzeit Hans-Christian Braun * Tenor
Joachim Vogt * Tenor
Michael Timm * Bass
Oliver Gawlik * Bass

http://www.vokalzeit.de/
Garry Walker Born and educated in Edinburgh, Garry Walker took up the ‘cello at the age of seven and became a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and Manchester University and was awarded a Junior Fellowship in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in 1997 to study with Edward Warren and Timothy Reynish. In May 1999 Garry Walker gained the first distinction ever awarded by the RNCM for conducting and in July 1999 won the Sixth Leeds Conductor’s Competition. In the UK Garry Walker has worked with such orchestras as the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic and Scottish Symphony Orchestras, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, English Northern Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Chamber orchestras include the Northern Sinfonia and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared regularly at the Edinburgh Festival since 2002. In Germany he has conducted a tour with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and a series of concerts with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. He returned to Germany at the beginning of 2003 to make his debut with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and again in 2005 with the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover. In 2004 he appeared for the first time with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg.
Martin Weller Trumpet

Maria Riccarda Wesseling mezzosoprano
www.mariariccardawesseling.com
Henning Wiegraebe www.henning-wiegraebe.de
Gerrit Zitterbart www.gerrit-zitterbart.de/